June 22, 2024 - Saturday - We stayed local today and visited the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. The latest exhibit called "Holding History: 50 Years in Redlands" explores the evolution of the San Bernardino County Museum from its founding to now. The museum was founded in 1952 by the San Bernardino County Museum Foundation. It opened to the public in 1957 and was donated to San Bernardino County in 1961. The facility moved from Bloomington, California to its present location in Redlands in 1974.
The museum (SBCM) has a large collection of mounted specimens, including this very large polar bear.
SBCM has sponsored a number of paleontology expeditions over its 50 years.
SBCM had an extensive collection of Native American artifacts, but, due to changes in the public mind, almost all of those artifacts have been returned to their respective tribes, unless given specific permission to keep them at the museum.
These artifacts were uncovered during construction in downtown San Bernardino over the original site of San Bernardino's Chinatown.
In addition to the mounted specimens, SBCM also has a large collection of bird and animal eggs.
Below is a mounted fisher, or fisher cat, which are hard to find in the wild.
The SBCM did a very nice job putting this together. It shows how they started, what they've done in these 50 years and what they intend to do in the future. It is very satisfying.
Afterwards we drove over to the city of San Bernardino to have lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant called Mitla Cafe.
Judy had their beef taquitos topped with guacamole. I shared some of my rice and beans with her.
I had their chili relleno, everything was delicious!
